‘I am fine!’ Information about the Sender's Health in the Greek Private Letters of the Roman Period

• Authors: Nachtergaele Delphine
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The epistolary practice of giving information about one’s own well-being was common in the Ptolemaic Greek private letters: such a formula appeared in com- bination with the wish for the addressee’s health. In the Roman period, a new health wish arose in the Greek private letters, and the combination of this new formula valetudinis and the information about the sender’s health became rather rare (only about twenty occurrences). Such attestation often appear in letters of a Latin environment, for example letters written in Italy , letters from soldiers, or letters from areas in which the Romans were very active, like Eastern Desert. Given that the practice of giving information about one’s own well-being was common in Latin letters from the Roman period, I argue in this paper that the relative absence of this topos in Greek letters from Roman times is due to Latin influence.

Keywords

EN

epistolography; private papyrus letters; formulaic language; language contact: Latin and Greek

• Publisher: Fundacja im. Rafała Taubenschlaga
• Journal: The Journal of Juristic Papyrology
• Year: 2014
• Issue: 44
• Pages: 155-162

Dates

published

2014

Contributors

author

Nachtergaele Delphine

• Department of Ancient Greek linguistics Ghent university Blandijnberg 2 9000 Ghent Belgium

Identifiers

ISSN

0075-4277